


Hitcher Delight

by sillyboyblue



Category: The Hitcher (1986), Turkish Delight (1973)
Genre: Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Sick John, Slash, hitcher delight
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-16
Updated: 2016-12-26
Packaged: 2018-08-22 20:03:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,327
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8298755
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sillyboyblue/pseuds/sillyboyblue
Summary: A Turkish Delight/The Hitcher crossover Jim Halsey learns John Ryder's true identity and memories ressurface.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Turkish Delight and The Hitcher belong to their rightful owners

John's pencil glided smoothly over the paper from which he looked up occasionally to glance at his model. A naked Jim Halsey was lying suggestively on the bed that the two of them had been sharing for years. 

"What's your name ?"

The pencil clattered to the floor. Jim could not make out John's face in the dark of their room but he could tell that the man was upset. 

"John... Ryder."

He had spoken in the exact same way that he had on their first encounter.

"Your real name."

Jim got to his feet and sensually walked toward his lover.

"You came up with that one."

He bent over to pick up the fallen pencil. His eyes met John's and he smirked as he gave it back to him.

"I'm not as dumb as I look."

John's eyes were cold but not unfeeling. He looked away for a fleeting instant to take the pencil before locking their gazes again when their fingers brushed.

"It's Erik."

"Erik what ?"

John was paying more attention to Jim's exposed body than to his questions. His eyes were unfocused and his voice distant, almost hesitant.

"Vonk." 

Jim's smirk turned into a smile as he licked his lips. 

"Erik Vonk."

The sound of his name in Jim's mouth made John shiver and he almost dropped his pencil once more. No one had pronounced this name in forever. It felt appropriate that Jim would be the first one to do so again.

"I didn't know you were German."

"That's because I'm not."

John thought Jim would have figured it out eventually. Jim would have protested that it was a miracle that he even knew how old John was.

"I'm Dutch."

"I didn't know you were Dutch."

It was because only Erik Vonk was Dutch, not John Ryder. John Ryder was born on the fateful day he met Jim Halsey. John Ryder was American. Jim never thought about John's past at first ; in fact, he even questioned its existence. But time had passed and he had begun to wonder who was John Ryder before he had become John Ryder. It felt like such a foreign concept to him, that John had had a life before their first encounter. 

"What should I call you ?"

John could no longer focus on his drawing. There was a tremor in his hand that he hoped would go unnoticed. His voice was soft, barely above a whisper.

"As you wish."

Jim placed his hands on his hips and tilted his head to the side, considering the options he was given and pondering which one would be the most convenient for the both of them. 

"Erik Vonk has a nice ring to it."

John set down his unfinished piece. He did not know if he would come back to it eventually. 

"You're saying it wrong."

Jim settled on John's lap and wrapped his arms around his neck with a mischievous grin.

"Then teach me."

It was too much for John. Flashes of his past overwhelmed him and he was reminiscing too vividly. He could not take it. He knew he should not have given in.

"Look at my lips."

Jim's stare was so intense it burned.

"Erik. Vonk."

Jim's attempts at mimicking sonorities that did not exist in English were a disaster.

"I'm making a fool of myself."

He cracked a smile and planted a kiss on John's lips.

"Sorry for butchering your name."

John did not return the kiss. He buried his trembling hands in Jim's hair and pressed his forehead against his young lover's chest when he could no longer stand looking at him.

Jim's smile faltered as he stroked John's shoulder blade gently and felt his muscles twitch as if he were in pain.

"John ?"

The blond man took a fistful of Jim's hair and tugged on it slightly as he rocked back and forth and rasped the same word over and over again, a word Jim had never heard before.

"John ?"

John's voice grew slurred to the point only a mix of o's and a's came out of his mouth, which eventually turned into pathetic animalistic whines that sent chills down Jim's spine. 

"Erik !"

John finally froze. He slowly pulled away from Jim but kept his head hung low. Jim dared not move.

After what felt like an eternity, John's eyes met Jim's who stared at him in disbelief. John's cheeks were soaked with tears. The weeping man hiccuped as if drunk on grief and cracked a smile that made Jim's heart skip a beat. It was the exact same smile that he had given him during their encounter back in Roy's Cafe. John let out a chuckle that scared Jim half to death.

"You are nothing like her."

John admired his lover. Wide brown eyes, pink swollen lips, messy wavy hair. He had never noticed how long Jim's hair had grown. His mouth was agape and his eyes were full of something John no longer enjoyed seeing in them : fear.

"Like who ?"

It was just like their first conversation all over again. None of them wished to relive it.

"Olga."

John's mouth felt like sandpaper as he rasped the name that used to be his favorite in the whole wide world. 

"Who's Olga ?"

John winced slightly. Jim had said her name wrong. The worried brunette found John's hands and felt the coolness of the silver band on his left ring finger.

"Your wife ?"

Jim really was not that dumb after all. Not that John had ever thought that he was, and if so, perhaps only for a fleeting moment. Jim was a smart kid.

As soon as he saw the small pout on John's face, Jim gasped and proceeded to kiss away his lover's tears.

"I'm sorry."

John cupped Jim's face in his hands and pressed their foreheads together.

"What for ?"

Jim squeezed his eyes shut.

"I shouldn't have asked you about your past..."

The kid was shaking just as badly as if John was holding him at gunpoint.

"Why not ?"

Jim flinched as if he had been striked and bit his lip.

"Because it's obvious something awful happened."

John let go of Jim's head who opened his eyes when he felt the warmth of the older man's hands leave his face. One look at him made his heart sink.

John looked lost and defeated. It was as if something in him had broken. It was worse than that : it was as if John had been stripped from his identity and reduced to the nameless exhausted stranger that Jim had seen at the police station. 

"Don't go." 

It finally hit him. John Ryder could not exist without Jim Halsey.

"I'm not going anywhere."

Jim reassured his lover as he held his hands and brought them to his lips to place a kiss on each knuckle. John's muscles relaxed once he understood that Jim meant it when he said that he would stay with him. 

John knew what abandon felt like.

"She left me."

Jim squeezed John's hands tightly.

"I won't."

He said, and John believed him. Yet he had also believed that Olga would never leave, and she did. Would Jim change his mind one day ?

"You are the best thing that's ever happened to me. I had been lost for thirteen years with no reason to live. You are my reason to live and I would die without you."

John's words caught Jim off-guard. He had never opened up the way he just did before. He had revealed so much about his feelings and his past, much more than Jim ever expected to know. The young man had always been confused about his feelings for John, but now it all seemed clear. 

"I love you."

John held Jim close and buried his face in the crook of his neck.

"I love you too."


	2. Chapter 2

John took Jim to a fancy restaurant this evening and made the sweetest love to him that night. They were lying on the bed, naked and limbs stretched out like starfish when John spoke.

"It wouldn't have worked between you and that girl."

Jim rolled on his belly to give his lover a confused look.

"What do you mean ?"

John sounded almost too calm for Jim's liking. 

"Maybe you would have stuck together for a while. Then you would have realized that you have nothing in common and grow tired of each other. Eventually you would have parted ways. It would not have lasted long."

Jim did not understand why John was bringing up this subject. It was like he was trying to ruin a perfect day.

"I didn't even love her."

John clicked his tongue.

"But if you had loved me back then, you would have killed me when you had the occasion."

Jim gritted his teeth.

"You know I wouldn't have."

John's words hurt Jim, so he decided to hurt him back. Maybe he was being childish, but so was John.

"But you're right, I didn't love you. Especially not when you called me a useless waste."

Jim did not mean it, but he did not know how to get to John other than by spitting his venom and force John to face his mistakes.

"Why did you need me if you wanted to die ? You could have killed yourself."

Before Jim could react, John was squeezing his throat with one hand, the other pressed against his mouth. Jim tried to squirm out of his grasp, in vain. John was just too strong when he was driven by anger. 

It was not until Jim's eyes rolled back in his head that John regained his senses and let go of the boy. Jim was not moving. John gently shook him but received no answer. Finally he calmed down and leaned over his lover's body. His cheek nearly touched Jim's mouth as he checked if he was breathing. He felt the unconscious young man's warm breath against his skin and sighed in relief. He still checked his pulse. It was normal.

John tucked Jim in and picked up his pillow and a plaid as he headed for the couch. It was better for the both of them. John had those moments when he just lost control. He usually took his anger out on the furniture, but he had never hurt Jim before. It was the first and hopefully last time. 

John curled up on the couch. He felt numb. He could not sleep. The image of Jim's motionless body haunted him. He could have killed him over stupid words. He was the one who had started it in the first place. Jim was only trying to defend himself. He had done nothing wrong.

John knew he was a sick and twisted human being -- barely human at all. He did not deserve to love and be loved in return. No matter how hard he tried to lead a normal life, he was still a blood-thirsty animal.

He had fantasies about killing Jim, to put a bullet right between his eyes, to strangle him to death with a rope -- or his bare hands, to make him understand how much he was hurting. 

Those visions made him sick. He rushed to the bathroom to expell the content of his stomach in the toilet. He retched loudly between short breaths. 

John heard footsteps behind him and a felt a hand rubbing his back. He dry heaved a few times before his stomach settled and he fell backward in Jim's arms. His whole body was shaking. Jim washed away the sick on John's chin with a wet flannel and kissed his forehead. John relaxed in his lover's arms and closed his eyes.

They did not need to speak to know that they had forgiven each other. 

"I love you." said Jim.

John had already fallen asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote this entire chapter in about 3 hours which is my personal record for that many words !


	3. Chapter 3

John woke up to the sound of Jim using the bathroom.

Although they had saved up enough money to live, John still had the habits of a poor artist living in his unsanitary workshop instead of the comfort of their small apartment. 

"Don't flush," he slurred, still half-asleep, "I'm going after you."

Jim made no remark. He had occasionally teased John about it at first, joking that unlike in John's young days, they had running water. John had asked Jim if he was afraid of him playing with his shit. Jim had replied that he did not care as long as John did not smear his face with piss.

John yawned without putting his hand before his mouth, revealing a neat row of flashing white teeth that Jim had compared to those of a coyote before calling him a desert demon. John was so amused by the comparison that he had growled and howled during sex. 

John was about to release the built-up pressure in his bladder when his gaze fell on the contents of the toilet bowl. He stormed out of the bathroom with a cry and his cock out. Jim rushed to him and took his face in his hands that were still wet from washing them.

"What's wrong ?"

John's eyes were wide and his breath was coming out in short gasps that resembled hiccups as his face contorted into a pout.

"There's blood in the bowl."

His lower lip began to quiver and soon he was bawling his eyes out as if all the handle of the tears tap he had kept closed for more than ten years had finally blown off.

"It's not blood, John."

Jim gathered his panic-striken lover in his arms and murmured soothing words while stroking his hair.

"I ate beet roots yesterday."

John stopped shaking and his sobs turned into a fit of laughter as he drew Jim closer and buried his face in the crook of his neck.

Jim swore he heard him mumble something that sounded like Dutch to his ears.

John let go of Jim with a final chuckle.

"I gotta go," he said, "or I'm going to piss myself."


End file.
